They have finally clarified the question of WHAT RATE WILL BE USED IN QUALIFYING CLIENTS under the new lending guidelines effective April 19th brought in by the government.

For loans with a fixed term of 5 years or more, the contract interest rate will be used for qualification purposes.
In simple terms, if the rate I am getting the client is 3.79%, that will be the rate I will be using to qualify them at. This is good news, there was concern that we would have to use the current posted 5 yr rate which is 5.39% today. This is NOT the case.

BUT....
Clients taking a fixed rate term of LESS than 5 years(1 to 4 yrs) and for all VARIABLE rate mortgages, regardless of the term, the qualifying interest rate will be the greater of the benchmark rate or the contract interest rate. IE Clients will have to qualify at the 5.39% current posted 5 yr rate.

Courtesy of:
Dan Faubert, Ottawa-Carleton Mtge: